Running

3 Miles = 4.828032 kilometers
Like any good American i am a lazy bastard and since I am enlisted in the military I need to get in shape. The most i have ran to date was just 2 miles and now i have to start running 3(Starting tomorrow) and then all the way up to 10. I want to be able to run 3 miles in 18 minutes. I have 10 months to train to reach that goal. At the moment being the lazy person I am i can run only 1 1/2 mile's in 11:43 which is very sad time. I was just wondering if anyone has any tips for me pertaining to anything? May not be the best place to ask for tips since we are all sitting on a computer.

/MANFIVE

I'm joining the military as well and have started training recently. I used to be able to run 1.5 miles in under 8 minutes, though I know for a fact that I almost died every time i did and doing 3 miles in 18 minutes is a rather ambitious goal. Not to say you shouldn't go for it, props to you for trying.

As far as tips, just keep at it. Keep running, don't drink anything horribly acidic like soda or energy drinks. Don't smoke or drink alcohol, eat well, balance your diet and all. Try doing some breathing exercises as well, they definitely help, stretch before, a couple times during if you can do it and after running. Hope this was at least a little useful ^_^;;

So what branch r u joining?

I need to work on my breathing mainly I start gasping for air way to early. I'll go look for some breathing exercises right now, and I am enlisted in the marines.

Yeah, what nightclock said. Good luck.


You should take a before and after pic, there'll be a huge difference in the way you look when you finish.

I will actually do that I most likely will need the motivation to keep going and then be like wow it really does work.

i think at first u should start out slow like first just jog the three miles
then go on from there..the main thing is that u have to push urself mad hard cuz i remember when i was running and i started to stop so i started to punch my chest and say "lets go lets go" and i kept going lol for like another min lol but yea
o yea you should also record your time everytime you jog/run and see how u improve or get better..

It is daunting at first but your body will actually start to like it after a while... Like sex, except you like sex in the beginning too... Seriously. Laziness is all you have to overcome really. As big said, start small first.

3 mi in 18 min is a pretty ambiguous goal. I barely got the 6 min mark with just a one mile run, doing 2 more miles consecutively afterwards with a 6 min average on each will be a bitch of a job, but I'm sure if you work at it, you'll be able to do it. Good luck man.

Start adding weights to your legs and going on longer, slower runs ,that will build up leg strength. [web]http://www.active.com/story.cfm?CHECKSSO=0&NUM=1&STORY_ID=12337&CATEGORY=running[/web]

I actually didn't think it would do something like that...meh oh well.

Yeah, 3 miles in 18 is close to College Cross Country level, a realistic goal would be 20. Although, my friend was 14 when he started running eighteen minutes, granted his best was 18:23.

I'd talk to your trainer to see what sort of regimen would best be suited to your new lifestyle. It would be a good idea to keep your on and off duty routines as similar as possible to make sure there's no fluctuations in performance. Mind you, that's my unprofessional opinion so take it with at least a handful of salt.


I thought adding weights was bad for you. Stress on the joints and what not.

Running is stressful on the joints no matter how you look at it. Adding weight will improve your time faster but it doesn't matter where or how you add it, you will do additional damage to your joints, if say you were to wear a backpack full of rocks or whatever, your knees would be subject to more pressure than if you were just running, but you would become stronger faster. When dealing with time constraints you might as well go all out.

My unprofessional suggestion would be to also do some leg exercises like leg presses and similar exercises. If I remember correctly my high school running team did these exercises and we were the best in our league.

Breathing exercises is essential when running.

Also. when you are done running, stand for a few minutes and catch your breath before sitting down. Suddenly sitting down after running a long way will make your legs feel very tired and weak. It can affect your performance on the next day.

^that advice is unprofessional btw.

Btw why do you want to run 3 miles within 18 min ??
I it necessary in order to get registered in the military ???
Anyway like Gimili once said "breathing that´s the trick".

Once I was also on the long-distance trip, running 4 kilometers every weekend with 30 kg on my back. After the running my shoulders hurt and I always got red strips caused be the backpack.

btw I am also an unprofessional one, I only did it because I wanted to challenge myself.

I only keep this up for 3 month, it was simply to bad for my joints, if you think about tha fact that if you run you will stress your joints with triple of your actually weight. So in my cause it was: (80 kg (bodyweight) + 30kg (backpack)) * 3 = 330 kg with each step.
Based on your running speed it can also be more or less.

But now I personally prefer being a sprinter I think this is way better than being a longe-distance runner, cause even in elementary school I was the fastes in the 100 meter dash.
You are much faster for a short periode of time and can easily escape,
I still don´t see the point in being a long-distance runner.

That's actually a ridiculously fast pace, a 6 minute mile is respectable, but doing that over 3 miles keeping the same pace is crazy fast, not everyone is physically capable of doing that, not by virtue of the fact that they aren't healthy enough, but because their body was never designed to do that.

I doubt anyone here is a professional runner. I'm most certainly not a professional runner.

I also enlisted in the military!
ima PVT. but gotta wait for basic training When i get out of High School,
which is in June.
But you have to Run 3 miles?
i was told 2 miles in under 14 mins..
by my Sargent.

Thanks for all the tips everyone
@kais86 I will try running with a 30lb sand belt one but I was told by someone else that not to put ankle weight's on because it will mess up your ankles quickly.

@Fiery_penguin_of_doom I will add leg exercises to my training because right now the only exercise my legs get is the running and i mainly focus on upper body strength.

@Uzumaki101 I do that already after running I half to walk another 1/2 mile to cool off and not feel so tired.

@Eranox No doing this is not required if i go in doing this i will get perfects scores on my IST's(Initial strength tests) and gain rank faster they do 3 initial tests.
1. Is pull-ups max score is 20 (Right now i can only do a pathetic 7)
2. is sit-ups max score is 100 in 2min (Right now i can do 66)
3. Is running max score is 3 miles in 18 min(I fail at this one)
I want to go in doing the max of everything to make basic training easier on me.


I'm sure if he knew you spelt like that he would be like wtf and tell you to do some push-ups

you know what you need? ... POWERTHIRST

(if you haven't seen it look on youtube)

I'v seen it and hopefully i would be LIKE A BEAR!

Edit: I just ran the 3 miles and feel like a little bitch after the halfway mark it wasnt even hard i just kept running cept for now my left foot hurts alot

That'll make him run ABNORMALLY FAST. He'll run as fast as a KENYAN. Then people will then he's KENYAN and he'll get deported back to KENYA. They he'd be AWOL.